


The Storyteller

by Untrust_Us



Category: Highlander - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 16:09:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11878062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Untrust_Us/pseuds/Untrust_Us
Summary: The Watchers of today may record the tale of immortals but what did they look like in the beginning?





	The Storyteller

As long as people have gathered in groups there have been storytellers. Sharing the joys and hardships of individuals and the tribe as a whole. Stories becomes history, passed onwards to the next generation. Poets, musicians and bards gathers to recites the myths and legends that binds us together. A bond of remembrance of the triumphs and heartbreaks of our forebears.

Oral recitations passed from master to apprentice making the stories legends. Gatherings between peoples facilitating assemblies between the lorekeepers. Eventually a council of a sort was formed who held responsibility to keep even the unpopular myths from being forgotten. A common ideology was at some point agreed upon. 

_We who hold the wisdom and warnings of the past have a responsibility to watch the present and as well as pass the ancient lore forward. However, we must not directly interfere with the paths of those destined for change and calamity. For though our quest to share knowledge is eternal, we are not the heralds of tomorrow._

The Watchers of today have forgotten the meaning of emotion. Of sharing myths around a fire and dream of other times and places. They have become lost in the maze of accuracy and bureaucracy. They hoard and teorise and keep a frightened eye on those they whisper about. Never do they shake off their preconceived notions and invoke the trade of long forgotten gossip for hospitality.  
They have forgotten that though they are Watchers they have the capacity to listen. That though immortals may be otherworldly, their existence have grown alongside the passionate hearts of men.

Why did the title of Methos, the Eldest, come to survive when so many others were forgotten? There must have been something from before the era of the horsemen, when Death did not hide behind the names of others. Did other immortals know him as Eldest? Was he truly the oldest at that point in time and if so how did anyone verify that claim?  
Or did the title instead originate from someplace else. Perhaps in a fledgling organisation of storytellers inviting the Eldest Storyteller of them all to share his life, love and despair. To speak about the harsh winters when ice covered the land. Of boats built to brave the oceans storms. Of lush rivers later dried up. Of stories that had long since been left to the dust. 

The Eldest may have been _an immortal_ but he was also one of their own. Respectful of the code of honor they had developed. At one point he had even saved them from ruination and shared of his own records. For that the Watchers vowed to always offer him safe harbour. 

As Methos now sits in the dim light of the Blues Bar he can’t keep himself from remembering the days before anger and apathy grabbed hold of him. At long last he is once again invited under the name of Methos, the Eldest. To drink both the beer and the warmth of the atmosphere as a fellow storyteller shares his grief and sorrow. As Joe captures his audience with depth and vibrancy Methos can’t help but listen to the song of life, a dichotomic balm to the part of him that craves the end of all things.

**Author's Note:**

> In my very late HL obsession I came across a discussion on Methos names origin. http://highlander-lj.livejournal.com/89701.html In the comments there was some speculation on the form the Watchers could have been as the organisation obviously can't have been the same as today. And so this little snippet came to be after brewing for a while.


End file.
